Marathon, Women

Because of concerns over the Tokyo summer heat, the marathons and race walk events had been moved to Sapporo, on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, which had also hosted the 1972 Olympic Winter Games. This change had been made even before the 2020 pandemic postponement. If it was supposed to be cooler, Sapporo had not heard that rumor as the morning of the women’s marathon had a wet-bulb temperature of 31° C. (88° F.) and a dew point of 20° C. (72° F.).

With the COVID pandemic none of the women’s marathon majors had been held yet in 2021 so picking favorites was difficult. Kenyan runners were expected to be dominant, however, led by Peres Jepchirchir, Brigid Kosgei, and Ruth Chepngetich.

With the heat the early pace was slow, as expected. The halfway point was reached only in 1-15:14, with 12 runners together in the lead. Chepngetich fell off the pace just before 30 km and would not finish. There were seven runners still together with 10 km remaining.

At 35 km, there were five leaders – Kosgei, Jepchirchir, Israeli Lonah Chemtai, Bahraini Eunice Chumba, and the surprising American Molly Seidel. Chumba gave way at 36 km, and at 38 km Seidel dropped back a few metres. Jepchirchir then hammered the pace, dropping Kosgei, and Chemtai-Saltpeter was not only dropped, but she would end up walking in and finishing 66th.

Jepchirchir maintained her pace until the final kilometre when she went into survival mode, winning gold in 2-27:20. Behind her Kosgei made it a 1-2 for Kenya, as Seidel won bronze by almost a minute over Ethiopian Roza Dereje.